Many live events are not broadcasted over TV channels or the Internet due to high operational and equipment costs and the requirements of human operated broadcasting. Currently, to broadcast sporting or other live events either on TV or over the Internet, it is necessary to employ a number of people with cameras to view the event from a number of angles. There is also a need to have some level of production and direction and a means to broadcast before that information is made available to subscribers. Prior art Internet broadcasting system present highlights of an event after it had already occurred, including a provision for commentary on individual highlights. In such systems, it is necessary to have cameras distributed over a stadium, operated by cameramen, accompanied by producers, directors and commentators. In recent Superbowls, systems were provided that distributed a plurality of cameras over the stadium without cameramen. Whenever something of interest happened, a human producer would direct a person in an operations booth in the studio to show the audience a play from a 360° view as part of a replay. A “Matrix”-style freeze and a 360° slow motion view around the person who was catching the ball or running with the ball (i.e., the Bullet-time effect) would be obtained. Unfortunately, it was still necessary for at least one human operator to take orders from the producer and operate a “master” camera that coordinated with a plurality of automated “slave” cameras to take the panoramic view. Thus, there was still some form of human intervention.
Accordingly, what would be desirable, but has not yet been provided, is a low cost and fully automated system that enables content owners to stream a wide range of indoor and outdoor live events over the Internet without the operational and maintenance burden of conventional broadcasting. The system would include a plurality of cameras and a computer that processes the video that is streaming from the cameras, the computer automatically deciding what it is that should be viewed from among the cameras and streaming the video and audio content over the Internet.